


Mary Poppins and the Ministry of Magic

by Laidely



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Mary Poppins - All Media Types, Mary Poppins - P. L. Travers
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-16 01:43:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5808502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laidely/pseuds/Laidely
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mary Poppins works for the Ministry of Magic, investigating Muggle-born wizards and preparing them (and their families) for the Wizarding World. When she comes to Jane and Michael Banks' home in 1910, they are not prepared for what awaits them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mary Poppins and the Ministry of Magic

**Author's Note:**

> I anticipate this work being 4-5 parts. It will eventually include a young Newt Scamander.

**1\. The East Wind**  
If you want to find King’s Cross Station, all you have to do is ask the Policeman at the crossroads. He will push his helmet slightly to one side, scratch his head thoughtfully, and then he will point his white-gloved finger and say: “First to your right, third on your left, sharp right again, and you can’t miss it. Good morning.” And sure enough, if you follow his directions exactly, you will be at the station- right at the center, from which all trains come in and out, each train on its own carefully marked platform.  
But if you are looking for Platform Nine and Three Quarters- and it is more than likely that you will be, for this story begins and ends there- you will struggle to find it. To begin with, it is invisible. And besides that, it is one of the only ones with carefully placed Muggle Repellent Charms, maintained as always by plainclothes employees of the Ministry of Magic, with an Oblivator waiting by the telephone in case of emergency.  
It is thanks to the tip-top charms and precautions placed by the Ministry that every soul in King’s Cross Station was conveniently looking at their watch when a thin, dark-haired woman stepped primly out of the brick wall, adjusting her hat with one hand and carrying a handsome umbrella in the other. She cast a brisk glance around the station before she moved on, stepping over each big stair, out the station and down the street. Had anybody spared this thin woman a second look, they may have admired how steadily she walked, and how the East Wind, which was turning and bending the trees nearly out of the ground, didn’t seem to bother her at all.  
“Excuse me, sir,” Mary Poppins said to the Policeman outside, “could you point me in the direction of Cherry Tree Lane?”

**2\. Cherry Tree Lane**  
Jane was the eldest, and Michael came next, and the babies never did anything interesting. They lived at Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane with Mrs. Brill to cook for them, and Ellen to dust and lay the tables, and Robertson Ay to cut the lawn and polish the shoes and who knows what. And, of course, besides these there was Mr. Banks, who went every day to The City to work in finance, and Mrs. Banks, who wrote letters to the newspapers and made important people feel “quite at home, thank you” in the drawing room, where Jane and Michael weren’t to go.  
Until three afternoons ago, Jane and Michael had been under the guidance of Katie Nanna. In the days since Katie Nanna quit without word or warning, Jane and Michael had been underfoot. A consensus was reached that Mrs. Banks would write an advertisement for a new nanny, and after several fitful drafts, her advertisement was sent and published.  
Because Mrs. Banks declared the afternoon too windy to play even in the garden, Jane and Michael sat by the window watching the people on the street try to keep their hats from being driven off by the gust. Even the occasional tumbling pedestrian failed to keep Michael’s interest, and he began to carefully unravel the trim on the window seat.  
“Look!” said Jane, pointing suddenly to a figure that stopped short in front of Number Seventeen.  
“Here comes our new nanny,” Michael said sullenly, “if mother lets her on staff.”  
The afternoon was already darkening, but the children could see plainly just how the lady approached the house. Instead of lifting the latch of the gate gate and moving through, she simply stopped and shook her big umbrella ever so slightly, as if to chastise the gate for remaining shut. The gate flung itself open, and just as definitively slammed itself shut after the woman crossed.  
“How funny,” Jane whispered, “it almost seemed as if-”  
“Let’s go and see who it is!” said Michael as he dragged her away from the window, through the Nursery and out onto the landing. From there they always had a good view of anything that happened in the front hall.  
Presently they saw Mrs. Banks coming out of the drawing-room with the visitor following her. Michael noticed her large feet and hands, and Jane took in her unsmiling face and small, rather peering blue eyes.  
“You’ll find that they are very nice children,” Mrs. Banks was saying, “and that they give no trouble at all,” as if she neither believed what she was saying nor expected the visitor to believe it either.  
“Now, about references--” Mrs. Banks went on.  
“Oh, I make it a rule never to give references,” said the visitor firmly. Mrs. Banks stared.  
“No references!?” she said. “Nonsense.”  
“A very old fashioned idea, to my mind,” the stranger said in a stern voice. “Very old fashioned.”  
“Begging your pardon, a more unprofessional thing I have never heard in all my years of maintaining a home! I simply do not believe-”  
And then Jane and Michael saw the stranger grip the wooden handle of her umbrella and heard her voice grow sterner still as she spoke a single word-  
_“Expialidocious.”_


End file.
